Celebrating Sustainability in Comfort With Steelcase Chairs

Earth Day and Arbor Day were this month, and we here at The Human Solution wanted to let you know a bit more about one of our ergonomic furniture manufacturers, Steelcase, and their commitment to sustainability throughout the life cycle of their products. Steelcase has dedicated a lot of its website to showcasing all of their environmental initiatives and offerings. It’s definitely worth taking a look. A good jumping off point would be to start at the “Planet” page.

What’s most surprising about Steelcase is the lengths that they go to minimize their environmental impact. From the choice of materials, to the packaging they use, to their use of energy and reduction of waste, they are really committed to having a positive impact in all aspects of their operations.

Here are a few things that I found truly amazing:

Steelcase has their own wind farm. This wind farm produces enough power for almost 3,000 homes and that makes them the largest investor in wind power in the furniture industry. See more about the farm here.

Their packing material is made of cotton seeds and mushroom roots – really! Produced from agricultural byproducts like cotton seed husks, it’s renewable and compostable. See pictures of it and an article here.

Steelcase has incorporated a water-based finishing method into their manufacturing process. What this means for the environment is that their wood furniture is now certified as low-emitting; the manufacturing plant uses less energy and they’ve reduced the hazardous chemicals they use by 96%.

Much of the leather that they use is from Elmo Leather, who harness energy from waste pollutants and, in turn, reduces their own emissions by 80%. Because of this, Elmo has the least environmental impact of any tannery on the planet. Read more about this process here.

If all of that isn’t enough information for you, Steelcase even has an “Environmental Profiles & Certificates” page where you can look up their products — like the Steelcase Leap Chair and the Steelcase Amia Chair — and find out things like how much recycled content is used in a product and how much of it is recyclable. While exploring all of Steelcase’s sustainable practices, don’t forget to take a look at some of their chairs we sell on our site. Their comfort and quality speaks for itself!

With a background in financial sales, teaching high school English and writing for print and online publications, Marty applies all of those skills as a content writer and sales associate at THS. When he’s not at THS, he plays guitar in a local indie rock band and spends time outdoors with his Chocolate Lab puppy.